Steven Spielberg is reteaming with Academy Award winning screenwriter Diablo Cody on an untitled comedy for DreamWorks.
The two recently collaborated on the upcoming Showtime series The United States of Tara, about a housewife with multiple personality disorder. The new project is being kept tightly under wraps, and according to Variety, even the dealmakers involved are being kept in the dark. The only thing we know for sure is that the project is based on an original idea by Spielberg.
I’ve read Cody’s Tara pilot, and I think the result will be something very unique. I can’t wait to see what this next project will be about. Anyone have any inside info? [...]

DreamWorks has acquired rights to The 39 Clues, Scholastic’s 10-book fantasy adventure series which will launch on September 9th 2008. Steven Spielberg is considering directing the project. Scholastic is hoping to replicate the success of the Harry Potter book series.
Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, Napoleon and Houdini are just some of the relatives of the most powerful family in the world - the Cahills. Grace, the Cahill clan matriarch is found dead just moments after she has changed her will, giving her descendants the choice between $1 million or a clue. Yes, one of 39 clues which reveal the source of the family’s powers. The series will follow two young Cahills, Amy, [...]

Paramount/DreamWorks just released a new theatrical trailer for Eagle Eye, which I’m guessing must be attached to prints of Wanted (which hits theaters this Friday). The new D.J. Caruso-directed fast-paced race-against-time-thriller which stars Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan as “two strangers who become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her diabolical plot, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed.”
The trailer picks up where the teaser left off, and doesnt let up. Is it just me or is this film looking better and better? The action [...]

Here is a rundown of all the essential information that you should know about the Spielberg/DreamWorks situation, and the current developments by Steven to raise a billion dollars for independence:
In 1994, Steven Spielberg founded DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (forming the SKG present on the bottom of the DreamWorks logo) and a $500 million investment from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Over the next fourteen years, Spielberg directed eight films under his new studio (Amistad-Munich), a streak that ended in May 2008 with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
DreamWorks won three consecutive best picture Academy Awards starting in 1999 with American Beauty (followed by Gladiator and A [...]

The Steven Spielberg-produced, Diablo Cody-written pilot The United States of Tara has just been picked up by Showtime. Toni Collette is set as Tara Gregor, a wife and mother of two teens, who just happens to suffer from multiple personality disorder. Basically the family must find a way to deal and live with her multiple personalities. And did I mention that the show is based on an original idea by Spielberg?
I might have read the script. And if I did, I’d tell you how it’s peppered with Cody’s pop-culture obsessed snap-filled dialog, minus the intense slang of Juno. And it’s not light either. In the opening it is revealed that [...]

When I was re-watching the Indiana Jones trilogy in preparation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I discovered something I never noticed before - Dan Aykroyd.

That’s right, the SNL star turned Ghostbuster has a very small cameo in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Unlike Raiders and Last Crusade, I had only seen the film once or twice since I was a kid, which might explain how I passed him by. The 18-second cameo is easy to miss and comes just after the conclusion of the car chase with Lao Che’s men in the film’s opening sequence. Aykroyd plays a character named “Weber”, who sports [...]

JollyJack’s latest Online Comic shows what happened to the script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

See More of JollyJack’s artwork on Deviant Art.

Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!

Movieland has the first blurry photo of Yun-Fat Chow as Master Roshi in Dragonball.
Steven Spielberg is creating a new social networking site called “The Rising.” The site will be dedicated to those who have had paranormal experiences, and users users will be encouraged to share their own extraterrestrial encounters. [io9]
Mark Johnson and Guillermo del Toro will produce an adaptation of David Moody’s 2006 novel Hater for Universal. The thriller is about an epidemic of random violence in which ordinary people strike lethally without warning or remorse. [variety]
Topless Robot [...]

I’m not sure if you’ve heard this yet, but Steven Spielberg had this idea which is the basis for Shia LaBeouf’s next film. NO, I’m not talking about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (that was clearly George’s idea). I’m talking about Eagle Eye, the first original story Hollywood has seen from Spielberg since 1985’s The Goonies. And before you get too excited, no, Spielberg didn’t direct (he was way too busy with that little Harrison Ford film), Disturbia director DJ Caruso was again paired with Shia.
The teaser trailer comes off as a cross between The Matrix and Enemy of the State, although the official plot [...]

Steven Spielberg has confirmed that the current plan is to co-direct the third TinTin movie with Peter Jackson.
“We are going to make three Tintin movies back-to-back. I’ll direct the first one, Peter will direct the second one. We’ll probably co-direct the third one.”
The first movie in the performance capture series is scheduled to begin production in September with Speilberg in the directors chair. Jackson will helm the second film in the series. Based on the classic comic-strip, Tintin follows the adventures of a junior reporter and his faithful dog Snowy. Jackson regular Andy Serkis (you know, the guy behind the characters of Golumn and King Kong) is signed on [...]

Rumors began in July 2007 that Shia LaBeouf signed a contract to reprise his role of Mutt Williams, in a series of Indiana Jones sequels. MTV quickly got a denial from LucasFilm, although it turns out that IESB.net’s source probably wasn’t far off after all. It has now been revealed that George Lucas has an idea to make more Indy films with Mutt as the lead character.
“I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this,” Lucas told Fox News. “But I have an idea to make Shia [LeBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it [...]

Earlier today we posted a featurette which showed a couple clips of Steven Spielberg directing on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Someone commented “I would LOVE to have a good hour video of just raw footage of a set behind the scenes”. And while I’m sure Lucas will never release such a documentary, I’ve always been quite fond of behind-the-scene on-the-wall documentaries. I it’s because I come from a film background, and always enjoy watching the masters at work on the set. But I think that some of you will also appreciate this footage, even if it’s not intended for mainstream audiences.
As a [...]

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas recorded video interviews for the EPK of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom for the Crystal Skull. You can watch the interviews below.
Spielberg talks about the demand for a fourth film, casting Harrison Ford, Ford as an action hero, on setting the story in 1957, how Mutt enters the story, how he discovered Shia LaBeouf, casting Shia in Indy 4, Karren Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Cate Blanchett as the villain Spaiko, the style of the film, the iconic score by John Williams, and on how the film was made for the audience.
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Paramount has released a new featurette for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull focusing on the directing talents of Steven Spielberg. It’s essentially just a bunch of shots edited together of Spielberg directing. There isn’t even interviews, so it might be considered more of montage than a featurette, but I digress.
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Also the Indiana Jones presence at Cannes is HUGE. The three new Indy banners shown above are on display on the Croisette. [badtaste]

Someone took a look at Steven Spielberg’s day planner and spilled the details about the legendary director’s upcoming film schedule. Apparently Spielberg is eyeing a September 2008 start for Tintin, the big screen performance-capture adaptation of the popular Belgian comic-strip hero (and his faithful dog Snowy).
After which he will immediately begin work on the long-gestating Abraham Lincoln biopic Lincoln in early 2009. Spielberg is rushing the project into production so that “it can also open in the same year as Lincoln’s 200th anniversary which comes round then.” Spielberg also tells FOCUS magazine that the production of Tintin would not be threatened by the possible upcoming actor’s strike.
“That doesn’t affect us [...]